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Hi ecomum I have had many anxiety attacks on trains before because of my surroundings and with there being so many people. What helped me quite a lot was finding something to do on the train to pass the time, as you say your daughter and her friend weren't given seats together, keeping busy is probably the best way to get through the train journey. Personally, I like to download a tv show or film I can watch with my earphones in and gradually the anxiousness dies down, reading a book is also a good idea or something that occupies the mind like a phone game. This gives something else to focus on. Alternatively though, depending on how she is feeling she could also sit with the anxiousness and to practice grounding techniques and mindfulness as they can really help to not drift off into a panic. I hope any of this helps!:)

Thank you. You are right, there have been patches when I have been able to do this but always fall back in for one reason or another.

Just reading your story is comforting to me as I can relate to that quite a lot, especially in the past. I think why I still engage with them is that it boils down to me wanting to be a people pleaser, possibly. Never wanting to do wrong and when I had a big breakdown last year, it has rolled into this year which has signalled something in my brain to continue to be cautious with how I am on a day to day and to monitor if I have done something to check my social media and if I've lost followers. Quite irrational. I'm not sure if it is because of what I experienced last year which when my whole uni flat found out about our horrendous flat mate and what he had done, we all blocked and unfollowed him. I guess the fear associated with it overcomes me and because of events that happened that were very stressful and being already confused with said flatmate before ,which I have written about before, make me believe that I need to be cautious.

Hi all, I haven't really been on here in a while because I had been doing somewhat okay, my compulsions went down and I was starting to head in a good direction until I thought it was good to take the next step and get a job. I started today and it was hard, not the work itself but the social interaction and the constant barrage of thoughts racing, it made me want to carry out my compulsions to check that everything is fine and that I am not in any trouble but I managed to hold off a few times which is good. When I finished for the day, the anxiety that I am a bad person and that I have done something horrendous poured in again, I have this fixation (which isn't healthy) that attaches meaning to followers on social media. If someone I know unfollows me it leaves me in a panic in fear that my thoughts are true, that I have done something and I'm living in this constant spiral. There is something in me that knows this is stupid but I can't help but check. I feel that it is an eventuality that 'people will find out' that I'm a horrendous person.

I should definitely make some time to do that before I'm on my next film shoot.

Thank you PolarBear. I had been doing pretty well but as I said I think the magnitude of stress I was under this week made all the more easy to fall back into the trap.

I very much sympathise with you Blondie. I read through a few of your posts, it does seem to align. I appreciate your response and if you need any support, feel free to shoot me a message so we are not alone in this.

Hi all, I was doing pretty well with my OCD thoughts and kept them at bay whilst I was on set filming a feature film, however as soon as it wrapped up it was more of the same. I seemed to have somewhat got passed my last obsession or at least it has gone down significantly. However, I had looked at my Facebook and I saw that I had commented on someone's post, the account I did not recognise and Facebook would not let me see the supposed comment, which obviously set the alarm bells off, it was up for a day apparently but I had no notifications if anyone had replied or interacted with it but now I can't seem to stop myself from thinking the worst of what it could have said. As soon as I realised my account had made a comment I deleted it from the activity log section. Obviously I think of how it could have happened, I was very sleep deprived and it could have happened when I was half asleep but I can't seem to rationalise how I came across that account and it has shook me a little and the feared consequences if I had written something malicious on the persons account or admitted to one of my OCD fears. I know it's not good to engage with it and to only deal with it if anything comes of it but after an emotionally draining week, it has become almost impossible to not fall into the trap. If anyone can add to this, it would greatly help. I'll add to this by saying one of my compulsions is to check social media to see if things like this have happened and it seemed to have come true.

Thanks anthracite! Both avoidance and self re-assurance are definitely my most common compulsions too.

Thank you cristo! It has been a challenging 6 months, but the fear remains, I will take that on board and hope it subsides!

Thank you for your advice. It is greatly appreciated. Going forward, that is what I will do and to power through the doubts.

Hi PolarBear, I had an event happen where I was studying at University and then returned home due to the lockdown and since then I constantly avoided going back to my University and my accommodation in fear that the event as it is in my head is real. My head is telling me that I assaulted someone which is why I did not want to go back out of fear. This week I confronted that avoidance and I'm now picking apart every detail from the trip to prove that it is true. I hope that clears things up.

Hi All This week has been pretty tough and I faced my biggest compulsion which is avoidance. I went back to my accommodation to collect all of my stuff and no real issue happened, it went rather smoothly if my mind was screwed on right. The issue that I am having now is that I still fear that I am going to be arrested, during me getting my stuff, I became hyperaware still of everything around me, people's expressions and how they spoke to me and to top it all off when I got back to my home train station there were two transport police cars with around 4 officers waiting there. It sent me off into a panic but nothing happened, yet I still cannot shake the fact that maybe it was for me and I just slipped past them. The reason I post this is because I genuinely can't find joy in anything that I do because of this bad thing my mind has telling me I have done, I have no evidence this has happened but still think its real. I constantly feel guilty doing anything, I finished my final year of Uni and I should have been elated to have completed my work but nothing, even the smallest leisure activities, I do not find enjoyable anymore because of this sense of impending doom. If anyone does have any advice, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Hi Caramoole, thank you for this!

This may sound like a very stupid question but can self reassurance be a compulsion? As I'd say to myself everything is okay, something would have happened by now and things along those lines. What I want to ask is this the same as seeking reassurance from others? As I have gotten over that compulsion but I still have times where its almost like a pep talk with myself, that says you're overreacting, you're fine. Any advice or answers are greatly appreciated as always.